Sanders is angry at Trump

It was no secret that, if elected, Donald Trump would fight for extensive tax breaks for the richest families and corporations in the country. During the second presidential debate, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton rightfully asserted that Trump’s tax plans would put the infamous Bush Tax Cuts to shame by a factor of at least two. In other words, the rich would now get a cut of about 1.32 percent of the GDP.

In the post-election crisis, we have already seen many wealthy patrons of the stock market bounce back due to positive anticipation of Trump following through on these plans, and it looks like they won’t have to wait long at all for any action. Already, Trump has made a deal with the Carrier Corporation to bring back 1000 of their jobs. Even though this is not much, it would still be a sign of a theoretically positive Trump Presidency were it not for an obvious catch: the state of Indiana (Vice president-elect Mike Pence’s home) will be forking over $7 million of taxpayer moneyto subsidize them.

This incident has proven to be ridiculous for a couple of reasons. One, Trump claims that, as part of the deal, Carrier will invest a $16 million+ investment into the facility, a promise that no company will follow through on without a hard contract. And two, directly negotiating with a business outside of bankruptcy situations is unprecedented in the history of the US. Not only is it a waste of government money, but it also dangerously pushes the country towards becoming a plutocracy.

As you can expect, Senator Bernie Sanders, beloved for his populist stances among the progressive community, is upset by this. Last month, Sanders published a statement on his site indicating that he would be willing to work with Trump as long as the President-elect put the people first. Having broken that campaign promise (amongst a plethora of others), Sanders responded in prompt,writing an op-ed in “The Washington Post” blasting Trump for his failure to hold corporations like United Technologies (which owns Carrier) accountable, especially when they were far from a state of desperation.

Sanders surmised the situation with a powerful statement to all Americans:

“In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.”